Reply to: home server setup

[dinker]

Tried the Windows 7 Beta yesterday, it didn`t recognise the Atheros ethernet chipset on my Asus motherboard (XP does)! Mucking about with Ubuntu 8.04 at the moment, all I can say is it`s very brown.

[Durbs]

Hmmm, that backup issue would be very annoying though....

Yup.

Have updated the clients with the latest version and re-set up the backups tonight so i'll see if that sorts it. Wierd as it used to work fine.

As a media server i cant complain though as its great for streaming stuff to the PS3 and has the bonus i can remote access all my PC's from anywhere using it. But the backup is a biggie as its the main thing i set it up for.

[blacjac]

Hmmm, that backup issue would be very annoying though....

[Durbs]

Just Googled the Mac thing and it looks possible: http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-acc...from-mac-os-x/

Now just gotta sort the backups and i can withdraw my de-recommendation

[Durbs]

Why the change of mind?
I am currently considering building a windows home server....

Because i've now got a Mac that i wanted to use on the network. It seems that the way Windows Home Server client works is firmly tied to NTFS so have had problems such as inability to create new folders within the server shares from the Mac. Try and create a new folder on the server from the Mac and it appears and then winks out of existence yet Windows clients will see loads of 'unnamed folders' appearing.

This is only an issue if you've got a Mac though and i havent yet done any extensive Googling to see if theres a way round it.

Next problem is really annoying - its main purpose is as a backup system and that originally worked great, it automatically backs up 3 other PC's each day. When i say automatically, it does it fine until one of the PC's isn't switched on at the time it wants to back it up. It then gives up on that PC and doesn't bother running a backup again. It'll nag you that it hasn't been backed up up for x days, but to fix it, i need to login to the console and manually run a backup. It'll then carry on happily auto-backing up this PC until the next time it finds it not switched on. Find myself forever having to kick off these manual backups to sort out one PC or another - you'd assume it'd be clever enough to just start the backup the next time that PC appeared.

Its not a "bad" system by any means but its got enough niggles (there's a few other issues that escape me at the moment) to make me think there's something better out there.

[NoddY]

These cheap ML110/ML115 series are excellent.

My recommendation is get VMWare ESXi installed and running from a USB stick.

http://www.techhead.co.uk/installing...5-g5-quad-core


You can then run as many different OS's as you please. I have two of these machines one is running FreeBSD 7-STABLE (as a file and print server) and the second (with 8Gb) runs ESXi with FreeBSD7amd64, Ubuntu 8.10 64, Windows XP SP2 32, Windows Vista 64 and various other bits and bobs. Connect to the VM's via SSH, NX Client and RDP

[FarmerPalmer]

I use this:

http://www.freenas.org/

[lilelvis2000]

CentOS 5.2 is also very stable and comes with a decent GUI - GNOME I think.
The latest Ubuntu - 8.10 has been panned by reviews - go with 8.04 LTS or try the new Fedora.

Another option is FreeBSD which IMHO is lighter and faster than Linux. and has far better docs. You won't find the need to constantly search forums and websites for answers to simple questions.

[Ardesco]

Ubuntu server is command line only so rules out using it as a 'standard' workstation as well. I should be able to install a lot of the useful server add-on's in the Desktop version anyway..i.e Samba.

I'm going to set it up with Raid1 and copy over my itunes librbary etc as you can setup other machines to use an itunes library located on a network drive.

Easily changed with an 'apt-get install kde' or 'apt-get install gnome' depending on your flavour of choice. I personally would go for a debian server, more stable than Ubuntu as they don't grab all the latest bells and whistles until they have been beta tested by the other distro's (like ubuntu)

[~Craig~]

Why the desktop Ubuntu instead of the server version?

Ubuntu server is command line only so rules out using it as a 'standard' workstation as well. I should be able to install a lot of the useful server add-on's in the Desktop version anyway..i.e Samba.

I'm going to set it up with Raid1 and copy over my itunes librbary etc as you can setup other machines to use an itunes library located on a network drive.

[blacjac]

Good choice of server, i've got one of those. Cheap but speedy and very well built.

I'm running Windows Home Server on it. Would i recommend it - No. Few weeks ago the answer would be yes but i'm looking for another solution myself now.

(and am partly wanting to wipe WHS off it so i can play with Windows 7 too).

Why the change of mind?
I am currently considering building a windows home server....

[VectraMan]

Why the desktop Ubuntu instead of the server version?

[~Craig~]

Good choice of server, i've got one of those. Cheap but speedy and very well built.

I'm running Windows Home Server on it. Would i recommend it - No. Few weeks ago the answer would be yes but i'm looking for another solution myself now.

(and am partly wanting to wipe WHS off it so i can play with Windows 7 too).

Just downloading the beta for windows 7 now. Will probably run as a VM in Ubuntu and have a play.

[Durbs]

Right I needs some advice...I've just bought myself an el cheapo HP ML115 server and a couple of 500gb disks (already have some extra RAM).

http://www.thehut.com/hut/10008117.product

I can decide what O/S to put on it....I have a couple of other laptops which we use for day-to-day browsing and I will be using this machine for shared storage, printing and maybe the odd bit of general Office, email stuff.

At the moment I'm swaying towards the desktop version of Ubuntu (mainly because it's free) but i'm open to suggestions.

Good choice of server, i've got one of those. Cheap but speedy and very well built.

I'm running Windows Home Server on it. Would i recommend it - No. Few weeks ago the answer would be yes but i'm looking for another solution myself now.

(and am partly wanting to wipe WHS off it so i can play with Windows 7 too).

[pmeswani]

Right I needs some advice...I've just bought myself an el cheapo HP ML115 server and a couple of 500gb disks (already have some extra RAM).

http://www.thehut.com/hut/10008117.product

I can decide what O/S to put on it....I have a couple of other laptops which we use for day-to-day browsing and I will be using this machine for shared storage, printing and maybe the odd bit of general Office, email stuff.

At the moment I'm swaying towards the desktop version of Ubuntu (mainly because it's free) but i'm open to suggestions.

Put linux on the server and make it into a web content / virus filtering proxy and email server (e.g. Squirrelmail) and enable a webmail frontend so that you can view your emails locally. Most Linux Distro's should handle it. Ubuntu as a desktop... can't comment... haven't used it yet.

HTH.